The Dodgers finally completed their search for a fourth starter, re-signing Vicente Padilla to a one-year, $5.025 million contract after the veteran right-hander became a key member of their starting rotation down the stretch last season.

Vicente Padilla went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in eight appearances for the Dodgers last season. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The Dodgers signed Padilla on Aug. 19, shortly after the Texas Rangers released him. Padilla went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in eight appearances, seven of them starts.

Padilla turned in seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits, in the Dodgers' division series-clinching win at St. Louis on Oct. 10. He then gave the Dodgers another stellar performance in the National League Championship Series, giving up one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings in a no-decision against the Phillies, in what turned out to be the Dodgers' only victory of the series.

Padilla was torched for six runs in three-plus innings in the final game of the NLCS.

He has a career mark of 98-85 with a 4.33 ERA in 11 major league seasons with four clubs. His best stretch came with Philadelphia in 2002 and 2003, when he went a combined 28-13 with a 3.45 ERA.

Padilla will receive a $4.025 million base salary in 2010 and a $1 million signing bonus payable in 2011.